Blog
How the tools actually work, photographed as they run: the score's arithmetic, the readers, the exports, the design decisions.
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Blog · Evidence
The whole arithmetic behind an ATS score, printed on the page
Three weights, eight completeness checks, four graded content rules, four ceilings. The whole sum, printed on the report.
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Blog · Evidence
A résumé parser with no model in it, and what it prints instead
Deterministic specialists read the document, quote it, and say how many of them worked. We photographed the reading.
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Blog · Evidence
The screen between your file and your résumé, and what it shows
Every field the reader filled, every field it left empty, and the counts it read. Photographed on a real import.
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Blog · Evidence
An uncertain parser should ask you, and nothing should move until you answer
Our test import produced exactly one question, with two answers and a promise that nothing is applied until it is answered.
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Blog · Evidence
A value the reader cannot trace to your document is dropped, and the drop is counted
Every string a specialist emits is checked against the source text. What fails the check is removed and reported, never shown.
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Blog · Evidence
We measured the DOCX export: zero network requests
The Word file is assembled in the page, byte by byte. We recorded the network during an export and counted what left.
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Blog · Evidence
A score you cannot check is a rating, so this one shows its working
The sum and the weights, printed on the score card of every report, and the hold in words when a ceiling applies.
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Blog · Evidence
Why a well-formatted résumé with nothing in it is held down
Four caps applied after the sum. We built a document that trips one today and photographed both numbers.
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Blog · Evidence
The line that tells you whether the score is even about your résumé
Words, lines, recognised headings, roles and skills. The extraction the score was computed from, printed under the report.
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Blog · Evidence
We rewrote one résumé's structure and the score moved from 70 to 88
Two checks, one browser, one list. The same work, filed two ways, with both scores side by side.
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Blog · Evidence
We exported a PDF from the builder and fed it back to the checker
The round trip: every role, degree and skill recovered, and the same score as the pasted text. It found two faults of ours on the way, both fixed.
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Blog · Evidence
The letter engine selects your sentences; it never writes one
Every proof sentence a line from the résumé, each traced. We drafted one against an invented posting and counted.
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Blog · Evidence
What the posting asked for and your evidence cannot support, listed and never claimed
Our draft named three gaps and asserted none of them. The same posting against a thinner résumé named five.
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Blog · Evidence
Each proof sentence says which line of your résumé it came from
Traced to your evidence, line 9. Then line 15, line 10, line 11. Photographed on a real draft.
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Blog · Evidence
A letter with no name on it says so, before you send it
We drafted the same letter without a name. The checklist flagged the signature and said where to add it.
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Blog · Evidence
A thumbnail of a letter tells you nothing, so the gallery shows the page
12 designs across 5 families, each shown as a complete letter you can read before choosing.
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Blog · Evidence
A badge about a layout, and never a promise about an employer's software
24 of the 37 designs carry the mark. Here is the property it describes and the test behind it.
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Blog · Evidence
Changing the layout never touches a word of your content
37 designs, one document. The formatting panel says it in its own words: adjust the design without changing the structure of your content.
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Blog · Evidence
Save the draft you are about to ruin, on this device, in one click
Version history, kept in the browser, up to twelve snapshots. We saved one and photographed the menu and the message.
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Blog · Evidence
Every design in the gallery renders as a complete page, because that is what you are choosing
37 designs, each drawn in full rather than shown as a thumbnail. A slower gallery that answers the question.
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Blog · Evidence
Three typefaces, a scale and a line height, and what each one is actually for
The formatting panel offers four controls. We photographed it and worked out what each one does to a page.
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Blog · Evidence
No parser reads your accent colour, so the question is only about the person
The scoring engine has no colour rule at all. What colour changes is where a human eye lands first.
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Blog · Evidence
The checker has no opinion about page count, and a reader has a strong one
No rule in the scoring engine counts pages. The volume rule tops out at 250 words. The rest is for the human eye.
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Blog · Evidence
Nothing to sign up for, one storage key, and no email asked for
The work lives in your browser under a single key, and the save is verified by reading the bytes back.
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Blog · Evidence
The numbers on the shared endpoints, and why you will not meet them
Twenty imports, sixty checks, forty letters and twelve PDF renders per five minutes, per address. Saturation guards, not a plan.
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Blog · Evidence
22 portfolio designs, each one a page somebody drew
Six directions, twenty complete websites, and a note on the gallery saying which five we would pick first.
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Blog · Evidence
Each of the 22 portfolio designs is a page, not a preset
Open one and it fills the screen at full size, with a sample person who does not exist and a structure nothing else shares.
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Blog · Evidence
Animation that carries meaning, and a reduced-motion rule in every design
Every design in the shipped set carries reduced-motion rules of its own. Motion here is structure, not decoration.
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Blog · Evidence
Preview and publish renders your real page at desktop and at 390 pixels before anything is public
Two device widths, the actual renderer, your own content. We photographed both on an invented candidate's page.
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Blog · Evidence
The picture in the gallery is a photograph of the page it opens
Twenty-six posters, twenty-six full-page captures, one versioned address each. The preview cannot drift from the design.
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Blog · Audiences
A student résumé with no paid jobs on it, run through our own checker
We wrote a student résumé with no employment on it, checked it, found a defect in our own reader, and re-checked it after the repair.
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Blog · Audiences
The graduate résumé, and what changes in it during the first six months of work
Education at the top, then the first role arrives and the document has to be rebuilt around it.
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Blog · Audiences
A nursing résumé full of numbers, and the rule that could not count them
Our invented nurse scored 87 with zero measurable achievements. The unit list was the fault; it was widened, and every clinical count now reads as evidence.
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Blog · Audiences
A teacher's résumé, and what a fourteen-word summary costs it
89 on 12 September, 94 once the unit rule was widened, 85 under today's graded rules, and one small rule a teaching page still trips.
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Blog · Audiences
An engineering résumé is a scope problem, and the page has four places to solve it
Systems, size, ownership and outcome, and where each of the four belongs on the document.
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Blog · Audiences
The link on a designer's résumé, and the three steps that make the page behind it
A résumé line points somewhere. Here is what this product puts at the other end of it, in three steps.
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Blog · Audiences
A freelance résumé has to answer one question the format was never built for
Eleven clients, four years, no single employer. Where that goes on a document designed for jobs.
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Blog · Audiences
Service on a civilian résumé, and the translation no tool here will do for you
The builder keeps your words exactly as you wrote them. That is the help and also the limit.
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Blog · Audiences
Returning after a career break, and where the break actually belongs
There is no field for a gap in this product. There is a right place for one, and it is not the résumé.
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Blog · Audiences
Changing career, and a letter that argues from lines you have already written
Our invented changer got three evidence paragraphs and two named gaps. Both numbers came from the product.
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Blog · Audiences
Age on a résumé, what two governments actually publish, and what this builder asks for
British guidance says leave it out. German guidance asks for it. The builder has no field for it either way.
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Blog · Audiences
Applying in Germany from outside it, with the conventions and where they come from
Anschreiben, Lebenslauf, Zeugnisse. What the Bundesagentur publishes, and what this builder can and cannot do.
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Blog · Audiences
A résumé for remote work has one extra job, and it is a two-line job
Where you are, what hours that means, and evidence that you have done the work at a distance.
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Blog · Audiences
Applying for a job at your own employer, where the letter has the harder task
The reader already knows you. That removes the introduction and raises the bar on the evidence.
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Blog · Audiences
A contractor's CV is a list of engagements, and the page has to say so on line one
Six clients in three years is a career, not instability. The document decides which one it looks like.
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Blog · Audiences
Turning an eleven-page academic CV into a two-page résumé without losing the argument
Publications become evidence, teaching becomes management, and the grant becomes a budget line.
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Blog · Audiences
An apprenticeship application is written before the evidence exists, and that is fine
School, a placement, a Saturday job and a project. We checked a page like that, found a fault in our own reader, and checked it again.
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Blog · Audiences
Retail work has better numbers than most office jobs, and they never reach the page
Customers, hours, shifts and stock are countable. The checker's measurable rule recognises three of those four words.
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Blog · Audiences
Seasonal work looks like churn on paper, and it is the easiest thing on the page to fix
Four summers at the same hotel is four years of trust. Written as four entries, it reads as four departures.
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Blog · Audiences
Unpaid work on a résumé, and the twenty points our checker used to take off for one word
A line beginning with the word Volunteer once ended the experience section. We changed the rule; both phrasings now score the same, 79 under today's graded rules.
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Blog · Decisions
PDF or DOCX, what each one actually costs you, and what this product does with both
One keeps the layout and loses the bullets. One keeps the bullets and loses the layout.
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Blog · Decisions
Photo or no photo, answered with the four public sources that actually disagree
German guidance says customary. American guidance says employers should not ask. Europass says add one.
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Blog · Decisions
One résumé or one per job, and the honest limit of what a checker can tell you
Tailoring works. It also costs an hour a time, and this checker cannot measure whether you did it.
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Blog · Decisions
Summary or no summary, and the three points a fourteen-word one cost on our own test
A heading is not a summary. The checker measured one at fourteen words and reported it as absent.
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Blog · Decisions
Skills first or experience first, and the measurement that says the checker does not care
We moved a whole section and re-ran the check. The score did not move by a single point.
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Blog · Decisions
Whether to list every job, and what leaving one off actually creates
A résumé is a summary, and an employment history form is not. The two documents have different obligations.
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Blog · Decisions
Whether to put your address on a résumé, and what this builder asks for instead
There is no postal address field in the identity editor. There is a location field, and that is the argument.
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Blog · Decisions
Whether the LinkedIn link earns its line, and when it costs you more than it gives
The field is optional and renders only when filled. That is the right default for a link nobody may open.
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Blog · Decisions
A repository and a portfolio page answer different questions, and only one of them is read
A repository is evidence for a reader who will open it. Most readers will not open it.
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Blog · Decisions
Whether to send a letter every time, with the guidance that actually publishes an answer
In Germany it is part of the published document set. In Britain the guidance describes one in detail.
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Blog · Decisions
Putting the letter in the email body instead of attaching it, and what changes
The words are the same. The design, the header and the signature are not, and one of them matters.
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Blog · Decisions
When a posting asks for a salary expectation, and why no tool here will write the number
The engine only writes figures your evidence already shows. A salary is not one of them, so you type it.
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Blog · Decisions
Writing a letter when somebody inside the company suggested you apply
The name belongs in the first sentence. The engine will not put it there, because it cannot know it.
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Blog · Decisions
Following up after an application, and the honest list of what this product does not do
Nothing here sends email, tracks an application or reminds you. What it keeps is the material a follow-up is made of.
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Blog · Decisions
Publishing a portfolio or keeping it to yourself, and exactly what publishing involves
Two things before publishing: choose an address, prove an email. And it can be taken down again.
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Blog · Devices
Writing a résumé on a phone, measured at 390 pixels
All four tools photographed at 390px wide. Horizontal overflow 0px, console errors 0, on every one.
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Blog · Devices
Applying from a Chromebook, measured at 1366 pixels
A browser is the whole requirement. Three tools measured at 1366 × 768: 0px overflow, 0 console errors.
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Blog · Devices
Writing and sending a résumé with no Microsoft Office
DOCX is assembled in your browser, PDF on our server. Neither needs Word, and both are free.
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Blog · Devices
What still works when the connection goes, measured
We cut the wire mid-edit. Typing and saving carried on; a reload did not. There is no offline mode here.
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Blog · Devices
What a shared computer keeps after you write a résumé here
Two local keys, 7 882 bytes, your name inside. A second browser profile saw nothing at all.
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Blog · Devices
Applying from a tablet, measured at 768 and 1024
Portrait and landscape, both tools, four measurements. Horizontal overflow 0px and 0 console errors on every one.
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Blog · Devices
What this product costs to load, and what it costs after that
51 requests and about 3 MB on the first load. After that the writing happens in the page and costs nothing.
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Blog · Devices
What our exported PDF carries, and what it does not
One reading order, real bullet characters, a document title. No tag tree. We opened the file and checked.
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Blog · Devices
Printing the document, and what the printer actually receives
Print the PDF, not the web page. We measured what print media gives you, and it is not the document.
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Blog · Devices
Emailing a résumé: the file, the name and the message
Our exports name themselves after you. Here is what to attach, what to write and what not to do.
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Blog · Explainers
What an applicant tracking system is, and what ours is not
A database with a parser in front of it. Ours is a reading measurement, and the difference matters.
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Blog · Explainers
Why a résumé comes out scrambled, and how to see it happen
Columns, tables, text boxes and headers. Four layout habits that reorder your document on the way in.
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Blog · Explainers
Parsing and screening: two different things people call the ATS
One is a reading, the other is a decision. Only the first is measurable from where you stand.
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Blog · Explainers
Keyword stuffing, and what the checker does with it
A wall of terms scores nothing here, because the content dimension measures evidence rather than vocabulary.
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Blog · Explainers
The six-second rule, and what can honestly be said instead
A widely repeated figure we cannot verify. Here is what we can measure, and what follows from it.
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Blog · Explainers
What gets found first, and how to make it findable
Eight essentials carry point values in our checker. Their weights are a reasonable map of what is looked for first.
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Blog · Explainers
Why two checkers give the same résumé two different scores
Different rules, different weights, different extractors. The only useful question is whether the tool shows its working.
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Blog · Explainers
Where free usually stops, and where it stops here
The common patterns, named. Then what this product actually gives away, which is all of it.
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Blog · Explainers
Watermarks, paywalls, and what comes out of our export
A watermarked résumé is a document you cannot send. Ours carries a title and nothing else.
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Blog · Explainers
What leaves your browser, when, and what is kept
Read here first, text sent second, the file itself only when this browser cannot read it. The whole list, named.
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Blog · Explainers
Reading a job posting, and what the product does with it
Four passes over the advert. Then the letter engine reads it too, and names what your evidence cannot support.
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Blog · Explainers
Telling a real requirement from a wish, in an advert
Some lines are law, some are policy, most are wishes. The three read differently once you know what to look for.
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Blog · Explainers
Half the criteria: what to do with the half you have
Lead with the evidence you have. The gaps list names the rest, and never claims it.
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Blog · Explainers
What a bad extraction costs, in points and in sections
48 words against 162. Two headings against four. The same career, read two ways.
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Blog · Explainers
Two pages, one page, and where the rule comes from
Public guidance disagrees by country and by employer. Our scorer rewards volume up to 250 words and stops.
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Blog · Explainers
What a score measures, and the four things it cannot
An invented four-minute résumé scores 88. That is what a high score means, and what it does not.
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Blog · Explainers
What no résumé tool can do, including this one
Six limits that apply to every product in this category, ours included, with what we do instead.
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Blog · Explainers
CV and résumé: the same document, two vocabularies
In the UK a CV is the ordinary job document. In the US a CV is academic. Public guidance, with links.
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Blog · Explainers
What a portfolio can show that a document cannot claim
A résumé asserts; a page can show. Twenty designs, built from the same material, free to publish.
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Blog · Explainers
Keeping your own record, since this product keeps none
There is no tracker here and there is not going to be one. What the product does hold is worth knowing.
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Blog · Walkthroughs
Repairing a two-column résumé, in the order that works
Measure it, rebuild it in one column, measure again. The deduction is 22 points and it is the largest one there is.
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Blog · Walkthroughs
The same work, written twice: 63 and 88 in the free ATS checker
One invented person, one career, two documents. We measured both and photographed the arithmetic.
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Blog · Walkthroughs
A scanned résumé, measured: 85 where the text scored 88
Recognition recovered the words and the achievement lines, and lost the name. Three points, measured on our own export.
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Blog · Walkthroughs
When the PDF looks right and extracts wrong
Four symptoms, each with its own deduction, and one repair that fixes all four.
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Blog · Walkthroughs
A profile export is a data dump, and a résumé is not
Import it, read the review, and then do the part the import cannot: cut it and write the evidence.
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Blog · Walkthroughs
One document, several designs, and what actually changes
Changing design does not touch a word. 37 of them, 24 marked ATS-safe, all free.
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Blog · Walkthroughs
The letter, four parts, and what each one asks of you
Your résumé, the job, your letter, review and download. The engine selects your own sentences; you do the judging.
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Blog · Walkthroughs
A portfolio page from your résumé, walked end to end
Choose a design, fill it from your résumé, see the real page. Publishing is an action at the end, not a step you pass through.
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Blog · Walkthroughs
The first application is the expensive one, and why
Build the document once. Every application after it is a summary, a letter and a check.
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Blog · Walkthroughs
A week of applying, arranged so the hard part happens once
One evening on the document, then short sessions. A shape, not a promise about outcomes.
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Blog · Walkthroughs
One structural change, measured twice: 63, then 71
The same three achievement lines, moved under an experience heading with a role and dates. Eight points, all of them in completeness.
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Blog · Walkthroughs
The gaps list is the most useful thing the letter produces
Requirements your evidence cannot support, named and never claimed. That is a preparation list.
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Blog · Walkthroughs
Down to two designs, and how to decide between them
Four questions, in order. The reader decides it, and the export settles it.
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Blog · Walkthroughs
Check the file you send, not the page you looked at
A preview is a rendering in your browser. The export is the artefact, and only one of them is received.
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Blog · Walkthroughs
Reviewing a friend's résumé without taking it over
Run the check on their file, read the counts first, and give them the findings rather than your taste.
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Blog · Craft
The four things this product will not write for you
No model anywhere, so nothing can be invented. Here is the list of what that rules out, and why each one matters.
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Blog · Craft
Why a field it could not read is left blank and reported
Placeholder text is the most dangerous thing a builder can write, because it looks finished.
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Blog · Craft
Why an invented line is expensive later rather than now
The document is not where a lie fails. The interview is, and the file is still on record.
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Blog · Craft
Six places the evidence already exists, before you invent any
Most weak résumés describe real work badly. The material is usually in six ordinary places.
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Blog · Craft
The role you cannot write about, and how to get past it
Four reasons a line stays blank, and a different repair for each. None of them is a better adjective.
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Blog · Craft
Writing about shared work without claiming it or hiding in it
Name the verb that was yours. Led, wrote, ran, coordinated. All honest, all specific, all action-led.
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Blog · Craft
Where the figures are, when you no longer have the dashboard
Counts of people and things count here, not only percentages and currency. That widens what you can use.
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Blog · Craft
What to write when the work produced no figure at all
Scope, frequency, duration and consequence. Four line shapes that carry no number and still say something.
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Blog · Craft
The thing you built that people still use
A template, a checklist, a rota, a runbook. Durable results are the strongest line shape and the least written.
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Blog · Craft
A job that lasted four months, and what to do with it
Keep it, shorten it, or leave it out. Three answers, and the dates decide which.
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Blog · Evidence
How every résumé and cover letter example on this site is made and checked
One invented person per example, read by the import review, scored by the checker and opened by a door you can press yourself.
The other shelves
Everything on this site is backed by one of the four tools.
- Guides
Career guides
Step-by-step guides for one job each, every one backed by a tool on this site that does the thing the guide describes.
- Examples
Résumé and cover letter examples
Written examples for one role at a time, rendered in our own designs by the engine that renders yours. Every person here is invented, and the page says so.
- How-to
How to do it here
The awkward cases: on a phone, without Word, without an account, without paying, without an email address.
- Compare
Conxfolio beside the alternatives
Architectural facts only. What each tool is, what it costs, what it holds back, and a way for you to check both yourself.
- Make
Guided outcomes
One outcome at a time, with the real tools chained in the order that gets you there: read the résumé in, check it, write the letter from it, export both.
Conxfolio is a free set of four career tools: a résumé builder with 37 rendered layouts, an ATS résumé checker that prints its own arithmetic, a cover letter builder that traces every proof paragraph back to the line it came from, and a portfolio builder with 22 authored designs. There is no account to create, nothing is held back for a paid plan, and no language model is used anywhere in the product, so the readers, the score and the letter are deterministic code you can check.